Cheryl JP Johnson
As a result of attending the iTeach session in Juneau this past summer, I have restructured my class to include two new features. Although they took a bit of work to set up, I am thrilled with the results of both.
The first change I made was to entire online structure of my class. Up until now, I had been adding new “assignments” each week. These are actually my lessons that I post in the “assignment” section. In doing so, I had to be sure to archive the old lessons, and set the show dates of the tasks, lessons, resources, and gradebook to be sure they aligned. I had to update dates on all of these items each semester. My fear was always that I would forget to update the date in one of these items and it would not be available for my students when they needed it. By using the “Views” feature I learned about, I am able to automate the entire system and set the dates in just one of the areas – a considerable time and fret saver. I also used this feature to create a class calendar page. I used to post an Excel document with that information but it took a long time to edit and update it each semester. By posting it in a calendar view, I am able to simply update the web-based table. Although I haven’t, I could even update it during the semester without worrying that I would need to recall all hardcopies. You can see these structures within my current class site at: https://uascentral.uas.alaska.edu/online/ED628-JD1/?term=Fall-2008&behavior=UAS&session=944537
The second big change I made was in adding a class wiki. I am absolutely thrilled with the result. I know several of my students struggled with this as they had never written in a wiki before, but it was a great chance to give them the opportunity so they could determine if it would be a tool they may find useful with their students. What I really liked about it was that it gave them the chance to work together on creating a document instead of just commenting on research their classmates had posted which is how I have addressed this assignment in the past. In addition to needing to read their partners’ posts in depth to determine what they should add and how to seamlessly do so, they also had to work with others’ who had varying skills when it comes to writing in APA format. By doing so, they helped each other to create a single document with a much stronger format and more information than they could have created individually. This section of my class is password protected, but I’ve attached a few screenshots from it on the next page.
Overall, I found iTeach to be extremely beneficial. I had not had the opportunity to stay up on some of the Web 2.0 tools I wanted to share with my students so they could see how to use them in the classroom, and this gave me that chance.
Introductory Page for the Wiki Assignment (click for larger)
Some Student Work on the Assignment (click for larger) 